The structural diagram of the new element slowly rotated on the holographic screen. Tony stood before it, the gloom of the past several days finally lifting from his eyes. He turned and grabbed the sledgehammer in the corner, his tone decisive.
"JARVIS, prepare for major renovations. We're rebuilding the hardware again."
Tony swung the heavy sledgehammer one-handed and slammed it into the basement's load-bearing wall. Concrete fragments rained down as a web of cracks instantly spread across the hard surface.
"Sir! You are damaging the villa's primary load-bearing structure! Forcibly dismantling it to assemble accelerator equipment carries an extremely high risk!" JARVIS's warning sounded urgently.
Tony turned a deaf ear and brought the hammer down again, breaking straight through to the industrial cables and metal pipes embedded in the wall. His movements were brisk and mad. "There's no time for gradual testing and adjustments. I need to assemble a particle accelerator suitable for synthesizing the new element as quickly as possible."
"Tony!" Lynn immediately rose from his chair and called out to stop him from smashing the wall again. "Are you insane? You're going to tear down your mansion to cobble together a particle accelerator?"
"What else?" Tony shook the dust off his hands and bent down to haul out the heavy industrial conduits. He spoke rapidly, his eyes holding the certainty of someone who had found a way out of a desperate situation. "There's no ready-made equipment on the market. The only option is to build it myself."
He raised a hand toward the tangled conduits and steel in the wall. "With just the existing building materials, onboard circuitry, and industrial prisms, I can assemble a temporary particle accelerator to precisely bombard and synthesize the new element."
Lynn looked at him speechlessly, then reached out and lightly tapped the model of the 1974 Stark Expo beside him. "Instead of going to all this trouble and risking your neck tearing the place apart, you might as well just give me the mansion."
Tony paused at his words, turned around, and folded his arms. His chin rose slightly with that signature Stark arrogance. "Do you know how to do it?"
"Have you forgotten what my ability is?"
The laboratory abruptly fell silent. Tony looked at the intact model, then at the wreckage he had made of the wall, and quietly set down his sledgehammer. His expression shifted rapidly as well, from initial confusion to embarrassment, before finally settling into a seriousness he rarely displayed.
"It's not that I didn't think of it." His voice suddenly lowered, stripped of all its casual teasing and utterly serious. "I just didn't want to hurt you. Last time, at Iron Monger's factory complex, you forced yourself to act and passed out right afterward. When I carried you back, your heartbeat was so weak it had almost disappeared. Making you overdraw your ability and put yourself in danger again for one new element, for a shortcut, simply isn't worth it."
Tony stared at him steadily for a long time, the embarrassment slowly fading from his eyes. He turned and walked to the workbench, casually picked a few thin gold-titanium alloy rods from a pile of scattered metal scraps, and took up a laser welding gun. His fingers flew, and in a few quick motions he spot-welded the scraps into a crude, simple triangular frame, then gently pushed it toward Lynn.
"I just had JARVIS display the complete arrangement of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. You should have gotten a clear look." Tony stepped back and raised a hand in a teasing gesture, his tone returning to its familiar swagger. "Showtime, wizard boy."
Lynn lowered his head to look at the triangular frame in his palm. A few casually selected scraps formed the basic framework for the new element that could rewrite his and Tony's fates. He took a deep breath and, with a slight shift of his will, attempted his first formal use of his ability.
The next instant, fine, pale silver patterns of light spread from his fingertips, slowly seeping and extending like densely woven threads of flowing light. Layers of deep blue streams of information soon emerged across the crude triangular frame's surface, silently beginning its deconstruction and reconstruction on a microscopic level.
There was no thunderous roar, no violent explosion, only a quiet, gentle glow slowly rippling outward beneath the laboratory's cool white lights. Under Lynn's precise control, the atomic nuclei inside the triangular frame began rearranging into an orderly structure. Protons and neutrons matched up one by one, reproducing the exquisitely precise atomic structure diagram on the holographic screen without the slightest deviation.
The silver-gray base color of the metal gradually faded, its material transforming layer by layer as a pure, clear blue-white light shone from within.
In just a few seconds, the crude triangular frame in his palm underwent a complete transformation.
The rough welds and irregular edges all melted away, becoming a brand-new reactor core with flowing lines and perfect curves. Its blue-white radiance was restrained yet powerful, circulating steadily.
With a thought, Lynn deactivated his ability and handed over the brand-new core. "Done."
Tony immediately took it carefully with a pair of tongs. He lowered his eyes and stared fixedly at that faint glow, studying it in silence for a long time before turning and striding to the workbench. With extreme care, he fitted the core into the reactor base he had prepared in advance.
The instant the metal surfaces met, the electromagnetic rails built into the base activated, drawing the core precisely into place. A low, rounded hum slowly spread through the laboratory. The entire reactor's light flickered faintly twice, then stabilized completely. The lights throughout the laboratory dimmed for an instant in unison, while sensor readings in JARVIS's backend shifted rapidly before all returning to steady values a moment later.
"Energy output stable. Power curve smooth. Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified energy core. I will begin diagnostics."
Tony did not respond. He stood quietly before the workbench, lowering his head to look at the old reactor still embedded in his chest, then lifting his gaze to the brand-new core running steadily on the table. For a long time, he said nothing.
Lynn leaned back against his chair and opened his palm, watching the few lingering threads of pale silver light slowly dissipate. He turned his hands over repeatedly, checking that there was no discomfort or aftereffect, before turning toward Tony, whose thoughts were in turmoil.
"That gift your father left you really was something."
Lynn's tone was relaxed, carrying a measure of sincere admiration. "He gave you a second life outright."
He tilted his head slightly and voiced a question that had been weighing on him for a long time. "But I've always been curious, Tony. Why wouldn't you let me use my ability to remove the shrapnel from your chest before? The old reactor could maintain your vital signs outside your body, too. Removing the shrapnel and then switching to the new reactor would clearly be safer and more reliable. Would a palladium reactor keep poisoning you even if you used it outside your body?"
Tony gave a derisive chuckle at that and deliberately averted his gaze, his face bearing that signature Stark stubbornness.
"That ability of yours alters matter's underlying information. Who knows whether it might leave hidden side effects? I don't want to wake up one day and find my body changed beyond recognition, to the point where even I can't make sense of it."
Lynn chuckled softly, brushed the last lingering specks of light from his palm, then stood and patted the fine dust from his clothes. He walked over to the workbench and looked at the brand-new reactor glowing steadily, saying nothing more.